万物简史 第530期:丰富多彩的生命(26)

 We don't look in the right places. 我们没有找对地方。

In The Diversity of Life, Wilson describes how one botanist¹ spent a few days tramping around ten hectares of jungle in Borneo 在《生命的多样性》一书中，威尔逊描述了一位植物学家，花了几天时间在婆罗洲1万平方米的丛林里转了转，

and discovered a thousand new species of flowering plant — more than are found in the whole of North America. 就发现了1000种新的开花植物——比整个北美洲发现的还要多。

The plants weren't hard to find. It's just that no one had looked there before. 那些植物不难发现，只是以前没有人去那里找过。

Koen Maes of the Kenyan National Museum told me that he went to one cloud forest, as mountaintop forests are known in Kenya, 肯尼亚国家博物馆的科恩·梅斯对我说，他去了一处云林——肯尼亚的山顶森林是这么叫的，

and in a half hour "of not particularly dedicated² looking" found four new species of millipedes, 花了半个小时“不大仔细找”就发现了4种新的倍足纲节肢动物，

three representing new genera, and one new species of tree. 其中3种代表新的属，以及一种新的树。

"Big tree," he added, and shaped his arms as if about to dance with a very large partner. “大树呀！”他接着说，伸出胳膊做了个样子，好像要跟个大块头舞伴跳舞似的。

Cloud forests are found on the tops of plateaus and have sometimes been isolated³ for millions of years. 云林生长在高原顶部，有时候几百万年无人问津。

"They provide the ideal climate for biology and they have hardly been studied," he said. “它们为生物提供了理想的气候，几乎没有人去研究过。”他说。

Overall, tropical rain forests cover only about 6 percent of Earth's surface, 热带雨林总共只覆盖地球表面的大约6%，

but harbor more than half of its animal life and about two-thirds of its flowering plants, 但是它们是一半以上的动物和大约三分之二的开花植物的生活场所，

and most of this life remains⁴ unknown to us because too few researchers spend time in them. 这部分生命绝大部分是我们所不了解的，因为极少有研究人员在它们身上花时间。

Not incidentally, much of this could be quite valuable. 这里特别要提一句，其中的许多很可能非常宝贵。

At least 99 percent of flowering plants have never been tested for their medicinal properties. 至少有99%的开花植物的药用特性从未得到测试。

Because they can't flee from predators⁵, plants have had to contrive⁶ chemical defenses, and so are particularly enriched in intriguing⁷ compounds. 由于无法逃脱食草动物，植物不得不想出复杂的化学防御措施，因此尤其含有丰富的化合物。

 

1 botanist   

n.植物学家

参考例句：

• The botanist introduced a new species of plant to the region.那位植物学家向该地区引入了一种新植物。
• I had never talked with a botanist before,and I found him fascinating.我从没有接触过植物学那一类的学者，我觉得他说话极有吸引力。

2 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

3 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 contrive   

vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出

参考例句：

• Can you contrive to be here a little earlier?你能不能早一点来？
• How could you contrive to make such a mess of things?你怎么把事情弄得一团糟呢？

7 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》